Award winning broadcaster Dave Radlauer will be speaking on Forbidden City, Jimbo’s Bop City, North Beach, Harlem of the West and more!

Join the ADSC in celebrating the glamorous era of mid-century Bay Area nightclubs!

The iconic after-hours club “Jimbo’s Bop City” was pivotal for radical music pioneers exploring new modes of expression: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon. The renowned "Black Hawk" was a Tenderloin jazz bar fostering the emergence of stellar musicians like Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader and Vince Guaraldi, Miles Davis and others. “Forbidden City” was foremost among a half dozen Chinese-themed nightclubs staffed by Asian Americans. North Beach became Baghdad-by-the-Bay, a boisterous entertainment quarter offering almost every genre of Jazz, Blues, Folk, Poetry and Drag performance in elegant nightclubs or intimate Bohemian dives.

This vivid multimedia lecture is presented by award-winning broadcaster, writer and storyteller, Dave Radlauer. Dave was recently recognized by the Art Deco Society of California with a 2026 Art Deco Preservation Award for his longstanding efforts preserving and interpreting Bay Area jazz and music of the Deco era.

This online talk will be around 50-60 minutes followed by a Q&A session.